"If he's going to abuse his position of power because he has money, that shows character."

"He needs to understand when you say things that cross the line…. There are consequences. There are consequences when you say racist things. He slandered my people," she said.

Ms Maihi told 1 News she has received a lot of support and the petition has almost reached 40,000 signatures.

She said she's now trying to figure out what the next step will be for the petition.

The petition follows a column Sir Bob wrote for the NBR last Friday, in which he called for an annual l 'Maori Gratitude Day'.

Mr Jones argued in his piece, which was later removed from the NBR website, that "as there are no full-blooded Maoris in existence it indisputably follows that had it not been for migrants, mainly Brits, not a single Maori alive today … would have existed."